Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

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Hey, it's your homey sorry, it's your home. I know you don't like it when I call myself your old man, so I have some favors to ask you. Could you get rid of a few chairs in the living room? My floorboards are tired.

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Another easy thing.

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Hello, everybody, a hearty Ahadi. Hello, this is Jim Brockmeyer. I'm a disgraced baseball announcer to tell him nominees for best actor for Filipino Emmys and I am patient zero for Major League Baseball's nineteen eighty eight syphilis outbreak.

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Welcome, everybody, to the first ever Brockmeyer podcast where you can get the official Jim Brockmeyer take on what is going on in the world of sports. I am joined by my producer, my fearless producer and tremendous Chicago sports fan, the lovely and talented Sheena Dakshina.

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How are you? I'm great, thank you, Brockmeyer. And thanks everyone for listening to us today. Like Brockmeyer said, I'm a Chicago sports fan. So the most exciting thing in Chicago sports right now is still the last dance.

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If you want the most exciting thing in a in all sports. Yeah, sports talk for three months was nothing but analyzing the last dance.

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Yeah, I have a lot of a lot of thoughts on how badly Jerry Krauss handled the Tony coach deal. You saw that, right? You saw the last dance.

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I mean, I tried not to watch it, but I just feel like wake up. And it was on I found it to be an excellent lesson in the amazing things that can be accomplished when a vengeful psychopath finds a productive outlet because most psychopaths, they fall into negative activities like serial killing, the investment banking, being a celebrity chef and whatnot. But watching that thing see and how Michael Jordan was able to invent ways to feel insulted and then just use that as motivation to absolutely destroying embarrass other human beings while simultaneously being family friendly, it was very inspiring.

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Did you find it inspiring as a Chicago fan? Did you love that aspect of the sort of channeled hatred?

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I did, actually. I mean, it made a lot of sense as to as to why he never gave up the way he did. I mean, listen, a win is a win. Yes.

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Spoken like a true MJ fan. I don't see why this guy is sitting around doing nothing today because this psychopath is capable of great things. We should be taking advantage of it. I mean, why isn't he working on, like, a coronavirus vaccine? For example, if somebody just whispered to him, hey, MJ, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals called you a bitch, we'd have a vaccine tomorrow and Pfizer would be burned to the ground. It'd be a win win.

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Yeah. Or we could say you would never be able to do the flu game if you if you had had coronavirus instead and then you would take it personally and have to destroy coronavirus.

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Exactly. Coronavirus would not stand a chance against MJ if we got him angry at it. All right. Now, before we get into today's premiere episode, you might be saying to yourself, Jim, why the heck are you doing this? I mean, there's already a surplus of celebrities starting podcast. Just so many famous people fill in the Internet with their banal musings. I mean, no one could possibly listen to all of this inane garbage.

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And not only that, but my subject of discussion, the world of sports is just hanging by a thread amidst this pandemic, which is currently running rampant across America. I can't remember a time when it wasn't. Can you remember a time before the coronavirus? I can know I was born into the pandemic. Yeah. I can't think of a time when we weren't all dealing with this thing.

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There wasn't one. So why am I jumping into this thing now into the podcast game now?

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It seems like it's the worst time possible. And folks, the answer is simple. I am unemployed and I am saddled with debt. I mean, right before this lockdown started, I financed one of them peloton bikes, started making monthly you all those things.

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Shina, a stationary bike simulates you being outside on like a spin bike. Yeah, ostensibly, yes. I started making monthly payments, discovered I'm slowly going bankrupt as a result. And usually I can just get a job, call it minor league baseball games in the middle of nowhere in exchange for a pocket full of cash and all the kettle corn my heart desires. But not this year. I so figured I might as well try this podcasting thing again.

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Make a little cash reading promos for overfunded startups wanting to advertise to childless, tech savvy millennials with much too much disposable income, which is a nice Segway, isn't it, into our first sponsor here. Where's the first ad?

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Here we go. All right. Who's our first day? Oh, yes. OK, America, are you looking to exercise without leaving the house? Try Peloton Pellington.

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It's a great deal now. Can you hear it? My prints are going on in the background. Can you hear that happening? Yeah, it's a real professional operation. Yeah, I think my friend is trying to print out something. Yeah, I hope it's not long so I just imagine that's our theme music.

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Imagine the printer noise is our theme music over that printer noise. I want to introduce our first guest, our very first guest. I'm very excited about this. I could not. Launched this podcast with weird cringe noise happening without the help of my guest today. You know, him, of course, is the host of that Dan Libertador show with two gods on ESPN Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome sports commentator and Disney corporate shill Mr. Dan Levator.

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Dan, how are you?

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I am I am thrilled, honored to be on this podcast with you. Brockmeyer, I can't believe that you made me your first guest. You have a distinguished resume. And so that you chose me to make this voyage with you is exciting. Thank you. And please don't call me a shill again.

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Thank you, Dana. Thank you for joining us. Because, I mean, you know, snarky comments aside, I know being an employee of Disney and ESPN, it's very hard for you to have natural human conversations without being handed a list of sanitized, corporate approved talking points. So you're taking a very big risk being here.

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I appreciate it. I assume that there's currently in Imagineer with a sniper rifle trained on the back of your head in case we don't, quote unquote stick to sports. Is that right?

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It's not quite that bad, but they would prefer that I stick to sports.

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Yes. So your life isn't in immediate danger? Not that I know of.

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No. Thank you for me.

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Thank you, though, for the concern, not just your professional life.

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Perhaps now staying with this, given that you're not allowed to express opinions of your own on your network, do you ever worry that you might actually be one of Disney's animatronic robots?

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I mean, I've always assumed that all hosts on ESPN radio are are made using the same technology that Disneyland uses in their Hall of presidents. Is there any truth to that? Are you have you been made in a laboratory?

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We're not quite that disposable and interchangeable. I do have opinions that I'm allowed to give and I'm not muzzled.

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Well, that I guess that's an opinion of yours that I happen to not agree with. I think I think you're muzzled. And I'm not suggesting that you're not unique. I mean, they make different robots at the Hall of Presidents. They're like, I'm trying to guess what robot president they based your general shape on when they built you.

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This is a curious way to treat a guest. I mean, I just told you how flattered I was to be on here with you. And this is where you're starting with me.

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Well, I'm going to say Grover Cleveland, I'm a kid. You kind of look like Grover Cleveland. If he dressed like the manager of an Orange County Sunglass Hut, you know what I mean?

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The fattest president, like the fattest president is what you're saying, that I'm a robot, that that is shaped like the fattest president, essentially. Yeah, but only when you're at work and your private personal life. You're a delightful, you know, free spirited man.

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Is he fatter than Taft? I don't know whether I've got my fat presidential history. Right. Can you look that up in Cleveland once, get stuck in his own bathtub?

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Did he look like an Andre the Giant kind of thing? I'm going to look it up for you. No, that was no Andre the Giant.

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He used to have to. The rumor was, remember this, Dan Levitan, that Andre the Giant used to have to to take dumps in his bathtub because the toilet couldn't hold him.

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The stories are crazy involving Andre the Giant, like he passed out in a French hotel floor and they couldn't move him. So they threw like a blanket on him. And people thought he was like a terribly lumpy couch. That's a true story. I'm not even making that up.

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It was Taft, by the way. Taft was the the most obese. OK, so thank you. I appreciate it. So I'm not the most obese president. I'm just shaped like the second place finisher in the fat contest. Very good. Oh, yeah.

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You know, you're Cleveland, I guess what? I guess Whitlock would be Taft. So anyway, Dan, I apologize for teasing you. You know, that's part of my shtick. You know, that I love you and I am very appreciative to you for all the help you give me over the years to to my career and my show. And now day and all teasing aside, I said you were the host of the Dan Ledbetter show on ESPN Radio, which is accurate, but your show is very slowly disappearing.

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Is that not also accurate? Because it used to be three hours. It's now down to two hours. So is the goal to just very slowly whittle away at your show until it fits into a tick tock? Is that what's going on here?

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It hasn't actually been that slow. It was rather quick. It caught us a little bit off guard. But yes, there is some disappearing elements to what's happening to our show. Even as we fight frantically to keep it afloat.

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It does have anything to do with how woke you are. Do you suppose? I mean, because I know you as the woke ESPN radio personality. My God, you woke Dan Batard. I mean, I don't sleep at all, ever. You're so broke. It's like almost terrifying. And you're not afraid to speak out on social issues, at least when they don't have a Disney mike in front of you. Do you have any tips, Stan, on how sports personalities like myself might be able to do what you do?

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Without losing an hour of our shows to Mike Greenberg, any tips on that? I have noticed that the wonkiness is problematic. Used to be groundbreaking, right? I mean, 15 years ago when we were doing it, we were the only ones doing it. But now now I seem to be too woak.

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Yeah, you're like the Jolt Cola of second fattest president radio personalities you just saw live in a week. I mean, I think it's a shame, though, what has happened to your show. I mean, I've watched your radio show on TV, on ESPN News. I've been on it. It's very, very fun. Your studio is so very colorful, lots of characters and costumes. And I've always wondered what it is. All that hullabaloo, that razzmatazz, that that happy horseshit.

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Dan, is all that done in order to maintain the attention of ESPN News's primary audience? And by that, of course, I mean gambling addicts and people in the waiting room of a Jiffy Lube. I mean, it's the vibe you're going for. They're sort of a Sesame Street for four people who are just about to snap. Is that which are which are imminent.

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It wasn't that calculated. It's just colorful. We like my brother is my brother uses a lot of colors in his art.

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I see. So I see. So like a family thing. So you through your brother Molnár and you let them go nutty with their with the art in the studio.

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Well I mean, I didn't throw him a bone. He's a professional artist. He's very good at what he does. And I work with my family and friends as you've seen. You know, my dad's been next to me for a decade on television. That is true. So you didn't throw your dad a bone either. That's all that also was a was a was was a calculated sort of business decision on your part?

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Yeah.

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I put people next to me who are cartoonish and therefore I'm the straight man and I succeed off of their color because I keep my family very, very far away from not only my work, but really any anything having to do with myself. I don't trust any member of my family even like to grab me a glass of water, let alone put my professional life in their hands.

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But it's worked out for you, hasn't it, until recently? Yeah, I would say it's been very successful until. Yes, until my Greenberg started invading. Would you consider putting any of my Greenberg's family on your show?

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I know. I don't think I want to do that. Well, might be an interesting back door sort of combining the two worlds. You know, maybe maybe you could have one of my Greensburg's kids make some drawings, you know, colorful drawings, put them behind you. And, you know, maybe Mike Greenberg's cousin Stewie could could show up, you know, be like Stewardson Stewart.

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I mean, maybe an internship if it if it protects us under, you know, under duress.

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I'm just trying to help you. I'm trying to think outside the box. It doesn't sound like you're trying to help me out. It sounds like you're trying to insult me like you keep it. OK, I don't want this to get contentious. I know how these things work, but it sounds like you're really trying to cut me in the middle of everything we're talking about here. Hey, my goodness.

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You just I mean, you just went all Joan Crawford on me. I mean, my God, I'm sorry. You know, that should you know, I love you.

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It's how I express my love is sort of that insults are the language of intimacy among males. Exactly. That's very, very well said. Yes. Especially for me. That's as close as I get to being warm and cuddly. I like this getting awkward. How about we go to the news? That's what you're here to do is talk about some of the biggest sports stories. I mean, there haven't been many. My goodness, you guys have been filling time.

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So I do want to thank you again for joining us. You don't need to put up with me or any of this. And so maybe you can give us some of your Disney approved thoughts on what's been going on the last couple of weeks.

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So let's take a look at some of the biggest. It's our premiere episode. Let's take a look at some of the biggest things that stood out to me the last couple of weeks. Sheena, why don't you kick us off of that first topic here? What have we got?

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Yeah, here's an obvious one. The Fox Sports announcer Tom Brennaman has been suspended indefinitely following his use of a homophobic slur during last week's telecast of the Cincinnati Reds game against the Kansas City Royals. Brennaman left later in the game, but not before making an on air apology that was unexpectedly interrupted.

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CASTELLANOS To leave things off, Jim Day's going to be taking us the rest of the way through this game as Holland takes over on the mound. And I made a comment earlier tonight that I just went out over the year that I am deeply ashamed of. If I have hurt anyone out there. I can't tell you how much I see from the bottom of my heart. I'm so very, very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a a man of faith, as there is a drive in a deep left field by Constantinos that will be a home run.

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And so that'll make it a four nothing ball game. I don't know if I be putting on this headset again. I don't know if it's going to be for the Reds. I don't know if it's going to be for my bosses at FOX. I want to apologize for the people who sign my paycheck, for the Reds, for Fox Sports, Ohio, for the people I work with, for anybody that I've offended here tonight. I can't begin to tell you how deeply sorry I am.

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That is not who I am. It never has been. I am very, very sorry and I beg for your forgiveness.

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Jim Dale take you the rest of the way home, see Dan and Baseball and my audience, my new podcast audience. Baseball announcers cannot not call the play. It doesn't matter what is happening, you never stop calling the game. The world could be ending. The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse could be riding out onto the field. And we'd be like, and there's famine and pestilence. And here's the two one Bragan Bolander. I mean, that's just how it goes.

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I thought of you. I thought of you when I saw that happen with Brennaman because it seemed like something that you would respect as the guy with the puch broadcaster voice who always goes to the cathedral and prays at the baseball candle puke.

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Don't think I'm gonna let PUCA slide by me, although I will say this. I'd get offended that you just called my boys puke, but it's probably how many times I vomited in my life that has contributed to the deep timber of my boy. So it is technically accurate what you just said.

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At first I thought it was kind of jarring even I thought it was a little jarring to hear an offensive slur like that sit in that old school sports announcer puch voice that Brennaman has. But then I remembered he spent many, many years saying Washington Redskins. So I don't know. Maybe what was jarring was that that particular slur wasn't a team name. Maybe that's what threw him.

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Wow. That is a that. I was not expecting you to head there. Jim, you are braver than I am. Well, you know, I figured, you know, you're the dude, so I figured I'd. That's not my. I'm just trying to make you feel at home. I'm also trying to give voice to things that I know you can't say because you're Disney handcuffs, gilded Disney.

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And I don't think it's not necessary to keep bringing that up. Or you going to ask me a question about the Brennaman story?

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Well, I don't know if I had any questions. I just had a lot of stuff I wanted to say into your head, into your large head about him calling himself a man of faith. Right. When he called himself a man of faith, that's when there was a home run. Did that moment alone make you believe there might be a God? Do you believe in God? How about your question? Are you a God fearing man down? You believe in God?

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Are you religious man?

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I thought that that moment was sent from the comedy God. It's just him saying I'm a man of faith and then having to respect the call while hiding his homophobia, draping it in religion.

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But I mean, that moment alone made me believe in God because why why even mention that you're a man of faith in that context so that people are going to go easier on you? That's a cowardly move, in my opinion. I think he should have come out and been like, listen, I'm a devout nihilist. The universe is chaotic. There is no God. Morality is a social construct. I don't matter. You don't matter. Have a good night.

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Home run. I think that's what I did get a lot of text messages, as you might imagine, guys, after that happened, because I was also fired in Kansas City after saying some things on the air that we're not allowed. But my situation was different. I mean, my words were not hateful words. I mean, yeah, they were they were very hateful towards my ex wife, who in my defense, I did catch doing things to my neighbor, Bob Greenwald, or wearing a device around her waist that I dare not name in the presence of a of a Grover Cleveland shaped Disney employee.

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But, you know, Thom Brennaman said a thing after he said the bad thing that all people who are apologizing have to say.

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He said, folks, that's not me. That is not me. I'll tell you, I listen to what I said on the air. And, boy, is that me. I mean, that's me in my purest form. That's me. Plus a very high blood alcohol level. You know, that that was me all over. So now I'm not even done on him. And he later issued an even more extensive apology saying, and I'm quoting him now, I used the word that's both offensive and insulting.

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In the past twenty four hours, I've read about its history. I had no idea that word was so rooted in hate and violence. And I'm particularly ashamed that I know someone who makes his living by the use of words could be so careless and insensitive.

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Are you buying that? I mean, it seems really naive. It seems the idea that sentence jumped out at me when I read it, I'm like, really? You didn't know how bad that word was?

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I mean, come on, what is he trying to trying to convince us of there that he's heard the word used in a compassionate way, the good version of it. I mean, I'm in I guess I've heard it use like that, but only by gay man in reference to their friend. So it sounds like Thom Brennaman is trying to convince us that he's so immersed in queer culture that he felt comfortable using that word. I have trouble believing that somehow that the time.

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A good skepticism by you, Jim. Excellent skepticism. I'm with you.

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I thought about this to want to get your take on this. So, yes, he used an offensive slur. Right. Use, use, use the F word. But I think what he said is right. The exact quote was something like, he can't they came out of commercial and you hear or you're talking about that places like the F capital of the world. But even if he didn't use the slur, what is he talking about? Like, what's that conversation?

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I mean, even if he said more, probably you're talking about that places like the gate, one of the gay capitals of the world, what does that conversation try to reconstruct that conversation? Like what led you there?

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It's a good point you're making. I hadn't considered what was happening on the other end of that microphone. What were they talking about?

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Was this producer like complaining about how many gay people he saw in San Francisco? It's like, you know, Tom, I was in San Francisco this weekend. I counted like eleven, eleven sets of men holding hands. What what's with all that? Oh, well, you're talking about one of the gay capitals of the world. Is that what I don't understand? And it's not like I'm an angel either. You know, I've had problems like many problems like that before.

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Some are well documented. Some are with certain groups. Here's a little known one, an unknown one. One time down, I was calling a game and Brad Radke walked the bases loaded with a one run lead. And I said on the air, oh, folks, this situation is now hairier than an Armenian bakery. So, you know, I got a lot of flack for that one. And you you said it again just now, Jim, so you've got to be careful there right back where we started with that, you think I'm going to catch a lot of flak for that one time will tell.

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You should probably stop doing that. I should stop saying the situation is hairier than an Armenian bakery.

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It's number three.

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Probably shouldn't be counting them either. No, I'm not to tell you how to do your job. You haven't I haven't been hit by shrapnel from you yet.

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Yeah, that is that is our best selling merchandise item is the t shirt that says the situation is hairier than an Armenian bakery.

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So. All right, please stop doing that. All right.

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Let's move on. What else we got going on here? What else is another big story from the last couple of weeks that you think would interest Diane and Jim?

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Well, the NFL season is getting ready to start.

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Yes, it is very excited. Yes. Roger Goodell is allowing teams to determine their own policies on fan attendance and this the ongoing threat of coronaviruses. So as you can imagine, someone very much in favor of having fans at home games is Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones JERA. In an interview last week with Radio Station five point three, the fan Jones said that retracting the roof and opening a door in AT&T Stadium would create a, quote, vacuum cleaner effect that would keep fans safe.

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And Jones continued by saying, think of fresh air, think of openness, think of a lot of room, a lot of space. That's the way football is played. Football is by tradition. It's space, it's element. It's air, it's airflow and movement.

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I got to go first here. Why does Jerry Jones sound like he's leading a guided meditation there? I mean, what did that devolvement think of their lack of openness? Focus on your brain. Do not focus on the complete lack of safety measures in the stadium. Just open your lungs and open your wallet. I mean, what was going on here?

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You know, Jim, listening to you do that, we could maybe get out of more peloton that by getting you into guided meditations. Oh, no, I could not.

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That's like the opposite of me. I got it. I could do like I like. What's the opposite of a guided meditation? Maybe like a guided instigation. I could do like a guided irritation, like, oh, yeah, hey, your dad was a jerk and he was never there for you. As a kid, you look like crap. Just take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Did you notice that you smell like garbage, sir, and that the world around you sometimes may seem stressful and hectic.

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And that's because it is. And it's a result of you being a complete incompetent moron. You're an alcoholic and you're a pervert. God is real and he hates you. And no one likes to listen to you talk at parties because your stories are boring. And when you die, you will go to hell. Not mista you think I could market sort of a guided investigation like that.

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I mean it distracted me from Jerry Jones saying that AT&T Stadium could be turned into a large vacuum cleaner, so.

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Well the markets are saturated with guided meditations. We should let's tear people down. Let's make a note of that. You know, we can sell those to along with the situation is happier than an Armenian bakery.

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T shirts. Please stop doing that. Jim, please. Please stop it.

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He said it once. It might as well quadruple down on it. Then what do you think about what Jerry said there?

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And I mean, Jerry wants his money, wants his football, and Jerry doesn't care how he gets his money in his football and he just wants, you know, his window for winning championships, doesn't have a lot of time left in it. And so he wants to get out there and he wants to maximize the fun experience with his rich man's toy. I know.

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But the vacuum cleaner effect, I mean, I'm very anxious to see the vacuum cleaner effect in action, just if nothing else, just we have another reason to say cowboys suck. But I mean, that solution is just insane.

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Now, what am I I should expect nothing less from Jerry Jones.

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So they're going to open a door.

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That's what he says. You can open a door because that's a problem. That's why the coronaviruses destroying Texas, it's not that people are wearing masks, that there's not enough doors we need to build. Let's ventilator's and start building more doors. Look, I don't understand how cowboy fans can reasonably expect Jerry Jones to keep them safe in any way. I mean, aside from the fact that he's just a very wealthy man who's only interested in making money, as you just said, then he also looks very much like an unhurried grim reaper.

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I mean, you got to expect death coming from this guy.

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I'd never thought of that, that he does look a bit unrooted, a bit skeletal. We play it looks like game on our show. That's not a bad looks like for Jerry Jones for. Freedom use that saw with that Dan LeBreton skeleton, Jerry Jones, you should have that as a guest on your show. Like, let's go to Skeleton Jerry Jones or his take on this. That would be good. Actually, it's a good idea. We should now that we're back up on ESPN News, we should get a skeleton, Jerry Jones and put it here in the studio and make it talk to us about the greed of the NFL.

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Yeah, or maybe Mike Greenberg could do that. Jim, I don't know I don't know why you invite me on here to insult me again with Mike Greenberg references, because I know you get behind good ideas, you feel best ideas should win.

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And the important thing is that the fun bit gets out there. What difference does it make, whether it's it's you and your color colorful studio or my Greenberg and his more tasteful studio?

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What difference does it make? Right.

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It's a lot like Jerry Jones. Who cares who gets hurt. Let's just get the best possible result for me.

[00:29:25]

But getting back to Jerry Jones, I mean, this this solution that he's offering is just can we just say that it's a train wreck waiting to happen. People going to games are going to get the coronavirus. You think NFL fans are going to stay away from games if they're feeling sick? I have seen I have watched Buffalo Bills fans enter the stadium while actively throwing up. They actually turn the ticket turnstile with the force of their own vomit. All right.

[00:29:55]

They're not going to stay away from a game if they have a sore throat. Oh, my goodness. Jerry Jones, do you like to go to game? Stand up? Do you like attending your Miami radio Miami Dolphin fan?

[00:30:09]

I have gotten to the point. Sad to say, I don't know whether it's age or just when you work in an industry for a long time, some of the fandom maybe gets pulled out of you. But I have gotten to the point where the television viewing experience is to me much better than going to any of these sporting events because they just get it my way at my angles, watching it without having to walk two miles through parking or whatever else you have to suffer with at a game.

[00:30:41]

Well, that's definitely true of the NFL. I think most people in fact, I think they polled fans and about 80 percent of fans would much rather watch an NFL game at home. But do you feel the same way about basketball or baseball?

[00:30:55]

I basically feel that way about the televised sporting experience that we've gotten so good at making it on television that you don't. I mean, I understand why people still like the energy of their games. I just don't it's not something that I need anymore. But what about baseball?

[00:31:11]

I mean, at least it's we all know it's going to be horribly boring and almost unwatchable. But you sit there with your family and for some reason, hot dogs taste better there. And it's Pastorale. Do you ever enjoy just sitting out there at the old boneyard or even that's just that ship has sailed for you? Well, that has largely sailed. I enjoy I enjoy the hot dog wherever it is that I can get it. But I don't do the romanticizing about baseball that you do.

[00:31:37]

It's part of why you dislike it, because you harassed a lot like people just yelling, hey, Dan and I asking you this sports take in that sports take or whatever it is that, you know, how's Bobby?

[00:31:49]

How's Bobby is one. But this is I did most of my traveling around journalism before I became TV famous TV famous ends up being with less travel. So I haven't been by that happens in Miami more than anywhere.

[00:32:03]

How is Papi? He is old. He is fun. He is cartoonish. He continues to be you know, it's it's been a lot of fun. The greatest professional blessing of my life has been working next to my father and getting to enjoy these late years with him.

[00:32:19]

And doing that amongst your brother's artwork is like the icing on that cake family.

[00:32:24]

Yes. You don't work with your family.

[00:32:25]

I don't know very much about your family, actually, and that's very purposeful on my part. I think the less you know about me, the better.

[00:32:32]

I feel like you're pretty open about your sexual proclivities and your demons. You're just not open about your family.

[00:32:38]

That's right. Because I'm much more comfortable with my sexual perversity, my demons, than any member of my family. A couple of members of my family are actual demons. I mean, from like the seventh circle of hell, like with weird reptilian features and wings. And some of them are thousands of years old. And they're the precursor to you see, if you see any of these these people stay away from them. It's certainly how I see them.

[00:33:03]

I'm like, it's not literally true, but of course. But that would be weird sci fi series. You have to watch those stand up to watch sci fi series.

[00:33:12]

I'm not a huge sci fi fan, but one of the great movie experiences of my life was The Matrix, because I'm not a huge sci fi fan. And I walked in expecting very little and it was pretty spectacular.

[00:33:23]

Well, that's a decent Segway into our final segment here. You've been very kind to join us. We should wrap this up. Your time is precious. Well, actually, he got more and more free time lately, but that's another story. It's time to play a little game called Adjudge Your List. So I your list. That's right. The way this game is played is you give me your top five or something. Damn. And I will criticize your choices very, very severely.

[00:33:51]

So before we even begin this game, you know, you've lost it. You've lost this game. Now for this week's installment. Since most sports fans have been forced to binge watch so many TV shows due to this coronavirus shut down, I want you to give me we know it's not going to be safe. I want you to give me your top five TV shows of all time, 11 Jesus of all time.

[00:34:12]

All time. Top five TV show.

[00:34:14]

Oh, this is so difficult. OK, I was not prepared for this question in any way. So let's start here. Let's go. I mean, they're going to be just HBO shows. It's going to be Sopranos. Breaking Bad is going to be on there. I loved the shield that these all have the same kind of theme. I did one of those things.

[00:34:34]

Wait, one of those things is kind of not like the other. I mean, it's a classic cop show. Surprising choice from you, given your alleged weakness. Yeah, well, you know, the weakest answer you can give is that you don't watch TV because you're so socially active. That's what you should have said.

[00:34:50]

I'm sorry, Jim, but it's not true. I'm I'm not so socially active that I'm not watching some of the greatest TV shows because I'm protesting the street every day.

[00:35:00]

You should be doing that. Shame on you. Now, you're not judging my list. You're judging my life exactly right.

[00:35:07]

And also, the shield I want to point out is a Disney owned show now, isn't it? Isn't it Grover Cleveland, shame Disney shill. So what's your fourth? And just show the Mickey Mouse Club and Disney's Wonderful World of color back from the 1970s.

[00:35:24]

That's right. Actually, it was going to be between that or something.

[00:35:27]

Steamboat Willie related, you know, the original black and white cartoon that introduced Mickey Mouse, The World. That's your favorite TV show.

[00:35:40]

But, you know, so. So get Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Shield. What else would rounds out your list?

[00:35:46]

Let me look at some some early childhood shows, like just the nostalgic shows like Let's throw The Jeffersons in Happy Days. And there just because they remind me of a time I'm not surprised by the Jefferson and Happy Days part.

[00:35:59]

I kind of see it's sort of a throwback guy who enjoys throwback comedies. That seems like very on brand for you. I'm a little surprised by the by the the bad boy aspect of the rest lot of anti-heroes. What is it about those bad men that you find fascinating?

[00:36:13]

And were I thought that those shows sort of changed the genre right, where they made you root for a bad guy, that that was a new television for me. And so that's why I'm selecting such a similarly themed things, because watching that where they where they had me rooting for the bad guy is not something I had gotten used to in television. So that's incorrect.

[00:36:35]

That's wrong. That's not why you like those shows. You relate to these guys renegade behavior when you express opinions Disney Disney does not approve of on the air, things like opinions, like racism is bad. So you feel a solidarity with them.

[00:36:52]

That's not fair at all. That's not accurate.

[00:36:55]

You kind of see yourself as the Walter White of saying things like racism is bad right in the face of your corporate overlord.

[00:37:04]

That is not how I that's not accurate. Yes, it is. Well, you named a lot of great shows there, to be honest, but I'm going to have to pass judgment and declare this a very bad list. That's a bad list. And let me tell you, failed at that.

[00:37:21]

Well, I like the segment, though. I might steal it. Is that OK? Like judge someone else's list who should judge somebody else's list, feel free.

[00:37:31]

Saw with that one. There's plenty to go around. Also, most importantly, you forgot Brockmeyer all four seasons currently streaming on Hulu.

[00:37:41]

So I didn't forget Brockmeyer or you had it. You remember that. You just didn't include it. I guess I had that coming.

[00:37:47]

Does Disney own Hulu? I think Disney does on Hulu. OK, I'm sorry, I take that back.

[00:37:53]

All roads lead back to your your corporate overlords. Boy, I'd love to keep going on here with you, Dan Levitan, but we we had to cut the show down an hour to save tape for our interview with Mike Greenberg next week. So but you're very used to that. So that is it for this episode, the BROCKMEYER podcast, our premiere episode. I want to thank very much my guest today, Ben Levitan, giving a very good sport, not my co-host and producer.

[00:38:17]

She did not. And thanks to all of you for listening. And don't forget, keep it bright by that. And Armenians are very, very, very good.

[00:38:27]

Why?